de-stench the shirts (perfume edition)

December 14, 2020 4:14 PM

I bought some T-shirts from a thrift store and they all smell like someone soaked them in perfume. I think it's a combination of people's personal hygiene products and the use of fabric softener and scented detergents. Please help me eradicate this very strong odor.

The shirts in question are all cotton or cotton blends, and I have washed them several times already, poured vinegar on them and washed them, even washed them in Lysol. The perfume smell is much reduced, but still too much for the person who wants to wear them. How can I get rid of the smell completely within a short time, say, a couple weeks? Is this even possible?

I have read all of the normal Google advice on using vinegar to get rid of it, on letting the shirts air, using baking soda, washing repeatedly, etc. I'm looking for solutions that one does not commonly find on Google, if any exist.

Thanks!

posted by Crystal Fox to Grab Bag (16 answers total)

There's a formula making the rounds on my social world.

1/4 cup borax
1/4 cup washing soda
big scoop of tide power
Calgon water softener
Soak in hot water in your top load washer or in your bathtub for 4-6 hours. Then wash in your washer without detergent.

I used it to strip athletic wear of gross smells, and have also used it on older sheets. It works really well. I didn't use the calgon water softener (couldn't find it, also our water is already softened).


Seriously, it got rid of huge teen boy smells. Smells that were revolting. It has to be the Tide powder.
posted by Ftsqg at 4:20 PM on December 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

If you can hang them outside 24/7 for that couple weeks, it usually does the trick, especially if they get some sun.
posted by metasarah at 4:21 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

I am currently destinkifying similarly smelly thrifted cotton t-shirts. I tried washing in baking soda, soaking in baking soda, washing in vinegar and washing in oxyclean. That did not work. Now they are hanging on a rack on my back step. The smell is still there but lighter after 2 weeks outdoors. I might end up keeping them out there until the next snowstorm. Good luck to you!
posted by Maarika at 4:45 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Off the beaten path suggestion: seal them up in a plastic bag with a deodorizing kitty litter.
posted by purple_bird at 4:50 PM on December 14, 2020

Secondhand clothing I buy seems to frequently smell like some sort of scented product (Febreze or similar, I imagine).

My experience has been that the smell simply fades away after a few wash cycles - but in my case I wouldn't have described the smell as "very strong" so it might take a stronger intervention for you, like these other comments suggest.
posted by splitpeasoup at 5:17 PM on December 14, 2020

Blends might hold smells forever, any poly blend I have ever owned gets pitty and then stays that way. I check labels before I buy.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 5:29 PM on December 14, 2020

Put them in a bucket of water with a scoop of Oxiclean and let them sit for a week. I have more hope for eradicating the perfume than the personal body odor. Scrub out the armpit areas with a brush. Unfortunately in the worst cases, armpit fabric will be so saturated with deodorant/sweat that it’s a lost cause.
posted by oxisos at 5:39 PM on December 14, 2020

I would hand wash / vigorously agitate / soak in a bucket of hot water with a ton of unscented Dawn dish soap, and a scoop of Oxiclean if you have it. Together these will strip anything oil / petroleum based, like many commercial fragrances. The water will likely turn murky brown. Then rinse well and wash in the laundry.
Rinse well to avoid getting dish soap in the washing machine, unless you'd like to live in a 2001 foam rave!

If this doesn't work, you could try buying a few bottles of rubbing alcohol and soak in that- it will dissolve any actual perfume.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:11 PM on December 14, 2020

I got a shirt recently from a thrift shop that had a very strong perfumey smell. It's some polyester blend. I washed it 2 or 3 times in whatever detergent I was using for the rest of the laundry and the smell is gone. At other times I've used this stuff and it works well but leaves its own scent.
posted by mareli at 6:18 PM on December 14, 2020

Might be a candidate for the costume-shop trick of 1/3 vodka/water in a spray bottle, depending on the color of the fabric (consider doing a test patch in a less-visible spot, maybe). I will say some stink in polyester is there until nuclear winter, though.
posted by Charity Garfein at 6:36 PM on December 14, 2020

There are detergents that are branded as "sport wash". These are geared toward technical fabrics and other polyester, non natural materials and they get the stink out very successfully.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 6:59 PM on December 14, 2020

Try Defunkify laundry detergent. I use it to keep my workout clothes in good shaoe and it is worth its weight in gold for that. It also always helps for generally getting smells off stuff--try soaking overnight.
posted by dubhemerak3000 at 7:01 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Hydrogen peroxide plus baking soda is my most Advanced level treatment for stinky thrifted clothes. I also use something called Oxygen Bleach Plus from biokleen brand, which is a powder and doesn’t contain actual bleach.
posted by Comet Bug at 9:50 PM on December 14, 2020

I recently had to de-funk some silk sarees from ebay that smelled very strongly of perfume. I tried many of the above methods, and the only one that really worked was spritzing the item in question with vodka, then letting it air dry. It took two rounds of this to get it down to a tolerable level, but what really knocked out the residual scent on the last one was spritzing it with vodka and letting it air dry outside on a sunny day. You'd never know it had smelled like someone's grandma when it arrived!
posted by Vervain at 10:08 AM on December 15, 2020

I’m having similar issues. The best thing is bleach*. Obviously that’s not an option for all clothing. Other things that help:
-high dryer heat. Run clothes through the dryer at least twice, and the highest temperature setting. Let them get nice and static-y.
-Washing with unscented or cold water Tide.
-Borax. Diluted in hot water then added to wash. (A bit tricky to rinse if you have the misfortune of living somewhere with overly softened water)
-Clorox 2/peroxide - kinda helps
-Hanging clothes outdoors

I haven’t OxyClean or Washing Soda, but they’re worth a try.
Most important of all:
PATIENCE! Because it genuinely takes forever.

*I’m currently losing patience and about ready to start bleaching items that should not be bleached. Because how much more damage can bleach do that washing 10-15 times won’t do anyway?
posted by Neekee at 3:03 PM on December 15, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks for all your answers.

So what I found is that Lawn Beaver is right and the blends (polyester-cotton) hold on to the smell the longest. They still smell perceptibly of perfume after all of my attacks. However, the all-cotton shirts finally gave up all, or very nearly all, of the scent to a combination of repeated washing, in, variously, white vinegar, Oxyclean, lemon juice, and a *very* small amount of bleach, added to the tray in a front-load washer. For laundry detergent I used All Free and Clear. Bleach doesn't visibly damage colors (at least, it doesn't bother me if it does so slightly on used shirts) if used *very* judiciously, and does seem to be more effective than anything else in eliminating unwanted odors.

I thought this update might be helpful as it seems other people have the same problem and I wanted to share what worked for me. Thanks!
posted by Crystal Fox at 6:58 AM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]